Drought

Droughts are those creeping sort of natural disasters that grab us unawares. Or are they? With hotter weather, climate change, industrialization and over-population, it is obvious we are short of rains and water. Should we start running scared? Somewhere between the scare mongerers and the wild optimists lies the truth. Here is a quick primer to help you read between the headlines. When there is no rain over one season or several, and cattle, human beings and crops suffer a water shortage, it is called a...

NEW DELHI: The Centre today approved Rs 2,000-crore relief fund for areas affected by drought last year in Maharashtra. A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting of the high-level committee (HLC) of National Disaster Management, headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh. "The HLC today sanctioned Rs 2,000 crores for year 2014 under National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) for drought affected areas of Maharashtra ," Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh...

NEW DELHI: An Opposition-sponsored adjournment motion on the prevailing drought in several parts of the country was admitted by in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Speaker Manohar Joshi said 22 members of different parties had given notices for adjournment motion on the drought situation, but he was allowing Tarchand Bhagora of Congress, as his name was first in the ballot. Since Mr Bhagora has requested that the leader of Opposition Sonia Gandhi should be allowed to move the motion, he was permitting to...

COIMBATORE: Production of four major plantation crops in South India has been severely affected due to drought, following the failure of the South-West monsoon. In an article in 'The Planters' Chronicle,' a journal of the United Planters' Association of South India (UPASI), its president, I J J Rebello, said the coffee crop would be lower this season at 2,80,000 tonnes compared to 3,00,600 tonnes in 2001-2002. The drought had affected the growth of bushes, due to which there would be...

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh government is working towards making the state "drought-free" in five years by taking up irrigation and river linkage projects, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said here today. Speaking in the Legislative Assembly, he said the government would complete the pending irrigation projects, including the Polavaram multi-purpose project, in its tenure. The government would provide water to Anantapur, Chittoor, and...

MUMBAI: Maharashtra government will take steps to make the state drought-free by 2019, Governor C Vidyasagar Rao said here today. "Considering the adverse impact of recurrent droughts, the government has declared a new 'Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan'," Rao said addressing a joint session of Maharashtra Legislature at Vidhan Bhavan, as the Budget session got underway today. This Abhiyan aims at initiating permanent measures to make the state...

KOCHI: Drought is likely to have a severe impact on one more crop, namely, tea. The estimates done by United Planters Association of Southern India (Upasi) show that the drought situation prevailing in the planting areas of the South is likely to bring down the crop by almost 17% in the January to April period compared to the same period of the previous year. The estimated shortfall is around 10.5m kg during the period under review. An Upasi statement said that the drought situation had accentuated the wilting...

HYDERABAD: Notwithstanding the election time rivalry, caretaker chief minister of Andhra Pradesh and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu has sought to rally opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh on the issue of providing relief to drought-affected people in the run up to the elections. He requested the opposition parties to join him in appealing to the Election Commission (EC) to permit all drought-related works to go on in the state, keeping in view the summer season.

HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh appears to be heading for another drought if the rainfall received across the state so far is any indication. Of the three sub-divisions of coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telangana, only the coastal region has received a good rainfall till date, at about 99.1 mm compared with a normal of 67.9 mm. The other regions, however, have experienced deficit rainfall of -50% and -45%, respectively. In the last week, all the three sub-divisions received very...

MUMBAI: Research agencies are divided over the impact of a possible drought-like condition this year on farm output and its resultant bearing on growth with majority of them ruling out drought hitting the growth engine due to low share of farm sector on overall growth numbers. However, some projected a 50-75 bps reduction in GDP. Stating that the fears of a drought are unfounded as of now, an SBI research report said, "Whatever be the course of the monsoons this year,...

NEW DELHI: BJP on Thursday mooted long-term strategy for mitigation of drought suggesting subsidy on agricultural input and waiving of interest on loans to marginal farmers. The party's high level committee with BJP general secretary Rajnath Singh as convenor suggested that agriculture input subsidy of Rs 1,000 per hectare with a ceiling of two hectare should be given, party president M Venkaiah Naidu said. He said as part of the strategy to alleviate the suffering of the...

BUENOS AIRES: Rafael Nadal won his first title in nearly nine months, beating Juan Monaco 6-4, 6-1 to win the Argentina Open. Nadal's triumph was his first since he won a ninth French Open title at Roland Garros last June. His 46th career claycourt title is the second-most all-time behind the 49 of Argentina's Guillermo Vilas . It was Nadal's 65th career crown on all surfaces, moving him into sole possession of fifth place on the Open Era all-time list led...

MUMBAI: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today assured Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis that the committee headed by him would soon consider the state's memorandum on the drought situation and release maximum-possible assistance, an official statement today said. Fadnavis, who is in Delhi, also requested Singh to deploy additional ITBP platoons in Naxal-affected areas and the latter agreed, a statement from the Chief Minister's office said. ...

MUMBAI: Opposition NCP today launched a stinging attack on Shiv Sena , part of the BJP-led Maharashtra government, for "failing" to bring any relief to drought-hit farmers in the state. NCP state unit president Sunil Tatkare also took a dig at Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray for holding a photo exhibition here, proceeds of which will go towards the relief of affected farmers. "It is unfortunate that despite sharing power with BJP , Sena has not been...

MUMBAI: Reeling under twin electoral defeats in Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, Congress party in Maharashtra has decided to galvanise its cadre to take on the BJP-Sena government over its alleged failure to mitigate hardships of farmers suffering from drought and crop loss. State Congress president Manikrao Thakre said the two party committees set up to study the drought situation in Vidarbha and Marathwada, monitor drought relief measures and...

NAGPUR: A day after he was appointed as the Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Council, NCP leader Dhananjay Munde today said he would strive hard to secure "maximum help" from government for drought-hit farmers. "Marathwada and Vidarbha regions are facing the worst times in history of the state. Water scarcity is the biggest problem of the day followed by (shortage of) fodder for cattle. I myself toured four districts with Ajit dada (senior NCP leader and...

NEW DELHI: Wisened by the price paid for the mishandling of onion crisis in the state elections four years ago, the BJP has moved in swiftly to cushion itself against any adverse fallout of drought. BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday met Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to seek immediate preparation of a contingency plan. In his meeting with the prime minister, the BJP president said there was a need to impress upon the state government's to join the Comprehensive National Agricultural...

BHUBANESWAR: Amidst reports of largescale migration in the western districts following monsoon failure, Orissa government has submitted an interim report on the drought situation to the Centre, official sources said on Saturday. Revenue minister Biswabhushan Harichandan called on Union Agriculture Minister Ajit Singh at Delhi to submit the report on Friday. Harichandan informed the union minister that the state had received less than 46 per cent of the normal rainfall during the months of June...

NAGPUR: Even as Marathwada and Vidarbha regions continue to grapple with scarcity, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray feels that the state government has taken definite steps to tackle the drought conditions and is reaching out to affected farmers in Maharashtra. "The state government has surely taken some definite steps to tackle drought conditions being faced by villages in some regions of the state. Even places (in Nashik region) that...

NAGPUR: Nearly 25,000 villages in Maharashtra are in the grip of a severe drought and the state government is taking all possible measures to tackle the situation, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today told the state Assembly here. Making a suo moto statement in the Legislative Assembly on the drought-like situation, Fadnavis said that a central team visited about 14 scarcity-hit areas to assess the situation and appreciated the measures...